haha! good ahh..you used "la", but I don't really know how to use "la".

The faces of "la"

X la Y means if X then Y. But this is the fuzzy human language sense, not really the strict logical, formal mathematical sense. In this case, X is usually a complete sentence.

In the following cases, the la phrase is usually a fragment (no verb)

time phrase la Y. Y happened at "time phrase" Almost before jan Sonja could finish writing "toki pona doesn't have tense" people innovated ways to express when stuff happened. We have tense, it just isn't an inflectional or morphological process.

adverby-thing la Y. Usually stuff like, maybe (ken la), indeed (kin la), truly (lon la). Sometimes when a modifier after the verb doesn't look right, you can move it to the la phrase. jan Kipo believes (and likely correctly) that some adverbs are best left after the verb and never moved to a la phrase, such as pona, ike, etc--he's probably correct, but I still don't grok whats the difference between these sorts of adverbs.

topical-like thing la Y. mi la moku ni li pona. As for me, this food is good. Topicals in toki pona are community innovations, but they're happening and I predict they will become commonplace.

la chains with full sentencesX la Y la Z. No one knows what these mean. If X, If Y, then Z. So maybe this means, if X & Y then Z, if X or Y then Z, I don't know. In any case, this would make for very long sentences and be hard to read.

Last edited by janMato on Sun Sep 05, 2010 4:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The official name for the stuff in front of 'la' is "condition". This has been taken to mean 1) the "if" part of an "if...then..." 2) locating the event the main sentence describes in time (and -- though rarely done -- space) 3)locating the event is various metaphorical "spaces": possibility, opinion, ordered lists and other organizing forms, mood, etc. 4) bringing to prominence a central item that might otherwise be lost in the DO or PP slot. I expect there are more that will arise. Stay tuned -- and try some for yourself.

sehr sehr interessant as the little guy (Artie Johnson?) used to say.1. 'jan lawa' sounds like Lord, which (from the KJV anyhow) isn't right here, but we don't yet have a good God word at this point. 'e sewi e anpa' is a good dodge.2. I don't get 'sinpin' for "form" or whatever Luther says, "the depths are dark above the depths/at the lower heights"? 'tawa lon sewi telo'3. 'walo' avoids some dumb stuff later, though otherwise iffy. Imperatives odd in absence of anything to address.4. I wonder just how 'tu' does work as a vt, I would have gone with tu e walo en pimeja', I think.5. nimi 'tenpo suno', nimi 'tenpo pimeja' (fuss, fuss) and maybe 'ona li nimi 'tenpo suno' e walo' and so on.Last bit works but there should be a better way (I haven't looked the half dozen stored samples lately).6. odd imperatives again 'o kiwen li kama lon insa telo' 'ona li tu e telo'? or a continued imperative, 'ona o' just looks wrongish.7. 'pali e kiwen' Damn, we need PP modifying NPs to do this at all sensibly; it's not the water of the hard bottom, or of the lower firmament, but the telo lon anpa kiwen, etc. how does 'tu' work?8. nimi 'sewi' (so-so)9. ?? I'd use 'kulupu,' but then ... 'lon anpa sewi' The rest needs help (or, rather I do)10. Nice dodges. So above is not "No water appears" but "Non-water appears"11. some of those 'ona' might better be 'sama'?12. 'kepeken e nasin' 13.14. well, now 'walo' doesn't work so well, but either 'suno' or 'mun' messes up the effect.15. And so on16. 'ona li pali e suno lili mute.'17. Well, 'walo' for "light" still isn't great but given it, maybe 'walo e ma'18. 19. How to break up that string at the end?20. 'pona' at the end.Nice. It looks like we have a new German contingent.